MICHAEL CROTTA

9/25/84; '06 17th; Florida Atlantic Univ.
R/R; 6-6, 210

Level

W-L-Sv

BB/9

K/9

WHIP

OAVG

ERA

2004 NCAA

5-4-1

64.0

1.69

7.17

1.52

5.20

2005 NCAA

5-4-3

80.2

114

2.45

6.81

1.69

5.91

2006 NCAA

2-2-6

38.2

4.19

10.48

1.81

.317

5.82

2006 A

1-2-0

17.1

1.04

3.64

2.19

.424

10.38

2006 A-

1-3-0

43.2

0.82

5.77

1.08

.262

2.68

2007 AA

0-1-0

2.2

6.77

0.00

3.01

.400

10.12

2007 A

10-5-0

137.1

167

1.83

4.85

1.42

.298

4.39

2008 A+

9-10-0

146.1

171

1.54

5.97

1.34

.284

4.67

Baseball America describes Crotta as having a good change, an 88-92 fastball, and a splitter. The Pirates believe he has an average fastball and change, but needs to work on a breaking ball. Whatever he was throwing, he certainly got hit hard throughout his college career. He wasn't pitching in a severe hitters' environment, either, as his ERAs were well above the team average. The Pirates' scouting staff under the former regime seemed drawn to college pitchers who weren't especially good at getting hitters out, and so far there's no indication that the team's coaching staff can help these guys take a leap forward. Crotta signed quickly and started off at Williamsport, where he posted a low ERA, but an above average opponents' BA and a low K rate. The Pirates promoted him to Hickory for four starts and, to put it mildly, he got torched. He hardly walked anybody, but hitters were too busy teeing off against him. He had a 2.22 ground out to fly out ratio overall. Crotta fits a profile that the Pirates seemed to love until the change in management: very hittable, groundball pitchers with low K rates.

Back at Hickory in 2007, Crotta had about the season you'd expect: very few walks or Ks, lots of groundballs (2.58 GO/AO ratio), and lots of hits. He had serious problems with LH hitters, who batted .343 against him. He got hammered in a fill-in start for Altoona. The fact that the hits he allowed were predominantly singles kept his ERA within reason, but Zach Duke's struggles have shown that very hittable pitchers giving up huge numbers of singles is a formula that just doesn't work at higher levels. One good sign, though, was that he pitched much better in July and August, posting ERAs of 2.78 and 3.51 in those months, although his K rate remained very low. He opened 2008 with Lynchburg and had an interesting season. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Pirates wouldn't allow their minor league pitchers to throw sinkers for much of the season. After their experiences with Franquelis Osoria, it makes sense that they wouldn't want young pitchers just throwing sinkers all the time, which often works fine in the minors but not in the majors. In the last couple months they let Crotta resume throwing sinkers. His ERA through the end of June was 5.65. After that it was 3.70. The primary differences were that he walked fewer batters and allowed only one of his eight HRs after June; he still allowed 86 hits in 73.0 IP. Crotta remained an extreme groundball pitcher, with a groundout to air out ratio of 2.74. He did increase his K rate, but it remains very low. He also continued to have trouble with LH hitters, who batted .310 against him with five HRs, compared to .265 with three HRs in many more ABs for RH hitters. He should have a good chance of winning a spot in the Altoona rotation in 2009.

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